Crystal: Defending My Title
Crystal: Defending My Title is the third and final book in the Crystal Covell series. Emily began writing this book on May 21, 2013, the same day she finished Crystal's College Years. It was (finally) finished on April 8, 2015, almost two years after it first began being written. This book takes place in February-March 2014. Chapters Chapter 1: Unwelcome Guests Picking up right where the last book left off, Crystal sees that the two figures are nothing other than Malibu and Jasmine. They engage in petty insults, with Melissa shockingly taking part in it. Eventually, Melissa decides that they're done for the day, so they go to their dorm. Chapter 2: Messages Crystal looks on Facebook and sees that she has messages from someone named Hayley Sparrow. The messages say that she'd confident she can beat Crystal in skateboarding and she's so much better. Crystal checks her profile and sees that she's a thirteen-year-old girl from Tampa. She shrugs it off and stares at her tickets to an international skating competition next month that she will be competing in. Five of the ten tickets are claimed (for her, Melissa, Michael, Tanisha, and Tina), and she has no idea who to give the other five to. Melissa suggests giving them to Sabrina's Group, along with Malibu and Jasmine as a make-up attempt. Crystal looks at her, shocked at the suggestion, but does it anyway. The girls accept and Crystal leaves to tell Melissa that they're coming. The two then go to the coffee shop to study for an exam. Chapter 3: Know Your Enemy They arrive in Tampa a month later, and Crystal looks at the old strip club she and her dad lived in, before going to check herself into the competition. She checks in her guests as well, and they go to the hotel and make sleeping arrangements. Crystal then takes everyone up to the roof where Michael proposes a game that will help everyone know each other better, called "Know Your Enemy", in which they split into teams based on friends and confess something no one on the other team knows about them (it is optional for it to be something your own team knows). The confessions and reactions are as follows: *Jasmine: She is afraid to say no to Malibu, hence why she is Malibu's yes man. **Malibu told her that it's okay if Jasmine disagrees with her, it doesn't mean she'll stop liking her. *Tina: She used to be really clingy to Crystal before becoming better. **Crystal comments about remembering this (it's a callback to the first book). *Chrissy: She loves sports, especially soccer, and is an amazing athlete. **Crystal says she never would have guessed this, and everyone else seems fairly surprised. *Melissa: She loved skateboarders, even though they had been shunned where she lived. **This one didn't get much of a reaction other than Crystal stating she remembers this as well. *Jessica: She used to be a fat and ugly redhead, with no friends and no one would talk to her. **She began crying partway through, so Michael told her she didn't have to keep going. Crystal then states in her narration that she's been bullied as well, and is more like Jessica than she thought. *Tanisha: She never hated Crystal prior to befriending her, she only pretended to the entire time. **Crystal is a bit surprised, as are Malibu and Jasmine. *Sabrina: Her favorite music genre is power metal, not pop. Her favorite band is Rhapsody of Fire, not One Direction like everyone thinks. **Crystal states that none of them knew what Rhapsody of Fire was and Sabrina had to explain. The chapter ends with Crystal saying only Michael, Malibu, and herself are left. Their confessions are in the next chapter. Chapter 4: Into the Past Michael goes next, and states that he can play the guitar and sing a bit, but hid it from Crystal because he wasn't sure what she'd think of it. Crystal responds by saying he didn't have to hide it from her, and she thought it was cool that he could play something, because she knows she can't. She finishes by asking him to play something for them sometime, to which he agrees and sits down. Malibu goes next, and confuses everyon by introducing herself as Kaitlyn Eastwood. She then goes on to explain that Kaitlyn is her real name, not Malibu. Malibu was a nickname given to her by Tanisha in kindergarten, when she moved from there, because no one remembered her real name, and since she liked it, she kept it. Everyone looks shocked by this, and Malibu/Kaitlyn says she didn't bother trying to correct them. She sits, and Crystal goes. Crystal explains her life story, talking about how her parents ditched her, she was thrown out of her house and had to live with Jamie for a few years, and skateboarding was all she had. It was the only thing she was good at, and it was all she could make money off of. Trivia *Crystal series author Emily has stated that this book will probably carry the most emotional impact. *In this book, we will learn more about Crystal's past and how she lived her life on her own. We will also learn why she took up skateboarding in the first place and why it means so much to her. *This story is going to span the shortest time frame out of all the books, spanning over the course of only one month. Emily says that since many colleges often get the entire month of March off, this story will probably take place in March. *The subplot of the book involves Crystal and Michael trying out a relationship to see how they like it. **Emily herself has stated that she knows the answer as to whether they will stay together or break up. She refuses to reveal the answer, but she has said that they'll still be friends no matter what happens. *This is the first book of the series to have a plot spanning the entire story, as the previous books had a different plot in each chapter. **It is also worth noting that this is the first book in the series to have a prominent subplot. Category:Stories